Who's afraid?

“The enemy is fear.  We think it is hate; but, it is fear.” ~Ghandi

I told a group of people a story recently about an incident I remember that occurred many years ago when I was a young boy.  I couldn’t have been much more than three years old, but I still remember that moment to this day.

I accompanied my mom as I regularly did when I was very young, as she went to various venues to teach an aerobics class.  At one particular location, I remember being placed in a room where I could watch my mom as she taught the class, and attached to this room was another room that looked like a large closet.  This large closet was full of toys and other items that looked fun to play with, but I remember my mom closing the door, telling me that I could not go into that room because there were “monsters” in that room!

I know now, obviously, that my mom didn’t want me playing with items that didn’t belong to me that I could potentially break.  Why she didn’t just tell me that I couldn’t play with them because they didn’t belong to me?  I don’t know, but I am guessing she knew by this time that I was on the more mischievous side and I probably would have simply gone into the room if I didn’t think there were monsters in there.

Why did my mom do this?  She did it to instill a little fear into me.  As young children, our parents tell us to be careful when trying to use a chair as a stool, or when we are venturing to close to a hot stove.  We learn, from young on, to be fearful of trying new things because we risk personal injury.  As we continue on to our school years, our teachers also provide ample warnings and reprimands, for the simple sake of keeping us safe (and out of trouble).

With years of conditioning to play things safe, and with fear as the enforcer, it’s no wonder that we grow up to learn to be fearful of personal harm or loss.  The problem that we face as adults is that we have been conditioned to fear, and this fear paralyzes us from achieving great things!

Have you ever thought about something that you would absolutely love to do, but you are fearful of what may happen if you fail?  This fear of failure keeps you from even starting to pursue your dream?  Perhaps you have a fear of losing something, like finances, time with your family, self esteem, or something else.

When we let fear dominate our thought process, we resort back to our years of conditioning.  Then the self doubt creeps in, and then we talk ourselves out of what we were considering in the first place.

One effective way to overcome fear-based thinking is with positive self affirmations.  In other words, you have to talk to yourself in a way that is positive and motivating.  With positive self-talk, you can learn to convince yourself that you can accomplish great things. You can tell yourself that you are not afraid of success, and you are not afraid of failure.

Your brain is like a computer, and you can program it to do (and believe) whatever you want it to.  It literally takes a few weeks to “reprogram” your brain, but considering the fact that you were subject to years of fear-based thinking, a few weeks is a relatively short period of time in which to expect changes from within.  It can be done!

Let’s work together and choose to tell ourselves that we are capable of accomplishing our dreams, and that we can achieve great things!  Are you afraid to tell yourself that you are worth it? I know you are worth it!  Start telling yourself that you are!  You’ll see that you’re right!

Have a great week!

-Victor